Hunger Games and Spirited Away

With all the talk about the Hunger Games streaming on Facebook, I finally managed to make it out to the theatre to see what all the hype was about. But instead of humming and hawing about how great the movie was, I am going to entertain you by talking about my weekend.

On Saturday I woke up early to indulge in an American style breakfast; something that I haven't eaten for a long time!

By Taiwan's standards it was a relatively expensive, costing about 200 NTD (roughly 7 CAD), but it was worth every penny. I decided on the French toast breakfast which consisted of crispy bacon, hashed browns, scrambled eggs and of course French Toast. Since I love taking pictures of my food, I have one to share with you all here

I hope my photograph makes up for what my lack of expressive writing and detail. The picture makes my mouth water, anyway!

My friend who invited me out the the restaurant for breakfast had an omlet that looks something like this.

I had forgotten how delicious a good breakfast is, but now that I have rediscovered it, I may need to wake up early to have breakfast more often. 

Since the rest of my day was fairly boring, outside of watching the Hunger Games, I will skip the details and move onto Sunday's schedule, which consisted of doing some sight seeing north of Taipei City at a place called Jiufen (pronounced jo fun)

Known for it's stunning views, posh tea shops, Jiufen is also featured as one of the scenes in Miyazaki Hayao's "Spirited Away". For those who don't know much about Japan and Japanese animation, Miyazaki is one of the most famous Anime artists in Japan, and possibly the world. I don't think there is a single Japanese person who doesn't know who Miyazaki is and hasn't seen at least one of his films. 

My Neighbour Totoro is one of the most well known films, but Spirited Away is also well known. According to Wikipedia, the film grossed roughly 270 million US dollars to give you an idea of the popularity. 

Several of the buildings and scenes in the animated film were based off of buildings and areas located in Jiufen, Taiwan. This restaurant and coffee shop is one of several buildings that some of the scenes in the film  were modelled after. 

For those who haven't seen the movie, I would highly recommend it! Who knows, you may even become a fan and end up watching more of the animations. If you ever have a chance to visit Taiwan as well, I would recommend taking a day trip to Jiufen as well, it is definitely work the visit!

Just in time for sunset, my friend and I made it to the top of the hill which the town is located on and ducked into one of the many tea shops to enjoy the view and to get away from the hoards of people, who all had the same idea as we did (to spend a lovely day in a beautiful place).  Although it was overcast, the sun made its best effort to peek through the clouds and give a stunning view of the surrounding mountains and ocean. 

Though, I probably should have been studying for my Chinese midterm this past weekend, I would say my time was well spent taking in the sights and indulging in the delicious food that Taiwan has to offer. 

One month and a couple of weeks into my stay in Taiwan and I am loving every minute. I can only expect the next months to come to be even better than the first.